Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2015
Non-LTE strengths of Si II lines were computed in an effort to reproduce the observed strengths of Si II lines in the shell spectrum of ζ Tau. This effort was unsuccessful, probably because it assumed that the shell could be represented by a finite, plane-parallel slab. The main conclusion of this study, then, is that in order to understand the shell spectra of Be stars, a more realistic geometry must be assumed, in which the shell is represented by a thick disk.